Kennedy tops off a great year with Swans

Michael Cowley

IT was not as though he needed any more validation, but Josh Kennedy's decision to move from Hawthorn to Sydney in 2010, received another tick last night when he won the Bob Skilton Medal as Swans' best and fairest in their premiership season.

Kennedy continued his climb up the best and fairest ladder with a runaway win of the medal at last night's club awards presentation in Darling Harbour. In his first season at the club he finished third behind Kieren Jack and Shane Mumford, then last year was tied for second with Rhyce Shaw, behind Adam Goodes.

By the time all the votes were tallied, Kennedy had polled a stunning 877, 172 ahead of second placegetter Ted Richards, with last Saturday's Norm Smith Medal winner Ryan O'Keefe third with 701 votes.

Votes are awarded by coach John Longmire and four of his assistants after each game, with coaches able to give a player up to 10 votes for his performance, and can allocate votes to as many or as few players as they deem appropriate, per match.

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Kennedy polled in every game and his season total of 877 votes is the highest in the history of the award. In round 20 and again in the preliminary final - both against Collingwood - Kennedy recorded the maximum 50 votes.

''Every year we implore our players to improve and in the three seasons he has been at our club, Josh has just kept getting better and better," Longmire said. "To poll votes in every game is an outstanding achievement in itself and is testament to his consistency this season.

"Josh stood up in big games and that is a tremendous attribute. He polled a high number of votes in our win over West Coast in Perth, in two of our finals and in big games against Hawthorn and Collingwood throughout the season."

Kennedy also took out the prestigious Paul Kelly Players' Player Award, an award based on votes cast by all 22 members of the senior team after each match.

Young defender Alex Johnson won the Rising Star Award, Lewis Jetta took home the Dennis Carroll Trophy for most improved player, defender Nick Smith won the Barry Round Trophy for best clubman, while O'Keefe added another award to his trophy cabinet when he not surprisingly won the Paul Roos Award for best player in the finals.

Meanwhile, dual premiership winner Jude Bolton confirmed yesterday he had met the coach and chief executive of the club to discuss his options for the future and will take "a couple of weeks" to contemplate whether his 301-game career will continue into 2013.